


Expectation

by Rakath



Category: Degrassi
Genre: Future Fic, Gen, Original Children Characters - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-23
Updated: 2019-11-23
Packaged: 2021-02-18 17:23:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21530566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rakath/pseuds/Rakath
Summary: A Hope Hollingsworth-Pacini fiction. Requested.Hope, now a teenager at Degrassi, awkwardly trying to deal with being a teenager. Might write a second chapter depending on motivation.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 1





	Expectation

Hope made sure to put her headphones on before she got out the door. It didn’t really matter who was waiting to pick her up from school as the commentary was always the same. Hope had always gathered there was a difference between her parents and the parents of most of her classmates. She figured it out when she was about six, but she didn’t  _ get _ what it’d mean when she was a teenager.

And she was really tired of hearing random strangers think her parents are hot. She just didn’t need it in her day. But no sooner had she put her headphones on that someone had to tap her on the shoulder. “What- oh, hey Sophie.”

“Aunty M is picking us both up, she said you agreed to watch her kid.” The girl was a solid eight inches taller than Hope, which sucked given Sophie Martin was ten months younger than her. Mom had said Sophie was ‘Katie celebrating graduating a little too hard.’ She was tall, athletic, and very quiet most of the time.

Hope kicked the door frame, did she have to babysit tonight? She didn't remember, but she was the usual call from Sophie's aunt, “Crap, I forgot. Good thing I don’t have any plans.” Not that Hope loved her status of ‘Henrietta Sinclair’s pet project’ and how that influenced her social standing, just that Hope was used to someone figuring out basic math and taking advantage of it. “Why aren’t you watching him anyway.”

“Cause they like you more than me.” Hope wasn’t quite sure what that expression was. They’d always had a complicated childhood, seeing each other most holidays and never getting along. So she had no idea if that was some sort of self-dis, or just a cynical acceptance of some fact. Hope didn’t get to linger on it, “There’s her car.”

The good thing about Aunty M picking them up, was that Hope wasn’t technically related to her. So it was less creepy to hear anyone suggest how hot she was. She was blonde, average height, fairly good shape for one of mom and dad’s friends. “Hey kids, how was school.”

“Good,” was Sophie’s response as she headed around the car for the back seat. Hope took her birthright of being the older of the two and snagged the passenger seat.

“Fine.” Hope answered, in that way that confirmed one word in all the universe was not applicable to her feelings.

“I’ll be around for about an hour before I have to go, if you want to talk.”

Hope put her headphones back on as they drove off.

***

Once they got to the house, Sophie quickly vanished to her room. And as soon as that happened Hope felt her headphones pulled down to her neck. “I didn’t give you those to avoid me, kid.”

Hope looked at her aunt- well, aunt-in-law. “I’m fine, really.”

The older woman crossed her arms, “You’re not really selling me, you take after your dad on that.”

“Please don’t remind me of that,” Hope headed for the kitchen, her parents were weird. Their friends were weird, it was all some nonsense joke she couldn’t quite wrap her head around, “it was bad enough the first time you and Aunt Frankie explained you met through dad.”

“Not where I wanted to go with this, I’m worried about you. We have time before Frankie gets home to talk. Please? It’ll be good practice for me?” Aunt M pulled out snacks to keep Hope from running off. Which annoyed Hope, mostly because it worked. Every time, regardless of how obvious it was.

“It’s just- I dunno, I was expecting more out of high school than this? Not the crap you did, just- I feel like it isn’t enough…” Hope’s had a skewed view of what high school was since before she started there. She definitely had dreams about the halls of Degrassi as long as she remembered, probably because she’s been there before. Mom was holding her in her graduation picture.

And on top of that all of her mom and dad’s focus has been on keeping her from doing ‘any of the dumbass shit they did,’ dad’s words when he didn’t think Hope could hear him. Hope continued, “I have friends, just they don’t feel like a best friend. I’ve gone on dates but none of them feel like- I dunno.”

“They don’t feel like they’ll last the way your parents will?” Aunt M slid a juicebox across the kitchen island. Her usual go-to when things were serious, because ‘juice boxes are cute and silly, we need that sometimes.’

Hope shrugged, and sipped from the juice box.

“Just- find the best way to enjoy yourself, enjoy all you can of your life, that doesn’t involve tragic loves, drugs, or getting kidnapped.” Maya sipped her own juice box as if to undermine her point by being silly. But it did help.

“Why does Sophie think you like me better than her.”

Aunt M glanced toward the stairs, “She’s mad her mom and dad sent her here. They’re traveling too much for her to really come with and have a normal childhood.”

“And sending her to live with her lesbian aunts is going to help her make friends?”

“Not if you put it that way, and your dad has explained how bisexuality works so don’t even pretend you don’t know the word.” Aunt M shoved Hope on the shoulder, a playful tap Hope appreciated. Whatever crap her aunt went through it’d taught her to be a little more direct, something Hope enjoyed. “What do you like doing after school, things you can do instead of babysitting to make friends?”

Hope hated how easily she opened up to her aunt. It was just- so much easier. Compared dealing with mom and dad. Hope pulled a notebook out of her backpack. Opened it up to the newest pages, and slid it across the counter. She watched the former singer leaf through sketches, some photos of finished projects. 

“Drawing… and sculpture?”

“I dunno, I like making stuff. Not jewelry or clothes like mom would like, but just stuff appears in my head and I make it happen?” Hope never felt quite comfortable enough talking about her art. Mom always loved everything, and would put it on the fridge until the fridge was overloaded. However now Hope was sure everything she made was the fingerpaint of a child, and that her mom just loved colors. 

And, well, her.

“Well, find art nerds at your school to be friends with. The kind that can tell you how to get better. Push you to be better at this, without being abusive.” Aunt M was still leafing through the sketches, looking at them. But Hope wasn’t sure she knew what she was seeing each time, “I’d offer to help, but unless it’s in song form I can’t figure it out.”

Hope smiled, glad she read her aunt right.

The kitchen door opened and in came a brunette, wearing an outfit tailored for her to wear but meant to look ‘casual.’ That effortless perfection that Hope knows through her parents is a lot of work, the woman had a toddler waddling along at her side. “Hey sweetie,” the woman said to Aunt M before turning to Hope, “Hope, what are you doing here?”

“You… wanted me to babysit?”

“No… the venue has on-site daycare.” Aunt Frankie said, “Partially for the benefit of the gala, partially so everyone can judge each other off their kids.”

“Which is a good reason why our son being the best thing in the whole world makes us annoying to everyone else.” Maya had gotten up and picked her baby boy up into a hug. This, to Hope, felt like Maya trying to dodge the obvious question.

“You brought me over to interrogate me.”

“Yes, but unless you say it in front of my wife, your secrets are safe with me.” Aunt Frankie looked insulted by the words. And opened her mouth to say something. But Aunt M quickly kissed her wife on the cheek, “Darling, I love you, more than even music. But if Hope told you anything you’d tell one of her parents without meaning to.”

“I wouldn’t-” Aunt Frankie stared at her wife, then her niece, alternating between two statements of history unspoken as they just looked. “Shut up. Both of you.”

Returning to the business at hand, Hope faced her aunts, “Just tell me mom didn’t put you up to this?”

“Put me up to it, no,” Aunt M said, “That’s deceitful and underhanded.”

“So it was dad.”

Aunt M nodded, “I’ll tell him you’re fine, it’s just teenage stuff.”

Hope attempted her best glare, it didn’t really work out. “Thanks. But if you can scare him a little that’d be fine too.”

“Tell him you’re getting a mohawk, got it.”

Hope smiled.

***

The Art Club room was Ms. Moreno’s classroom, she wasn’t Hope’s favorite teacher but she appreciated the idea of what horrified faces her mother would have at the things this teacher wore to school. Nothing indecent but just wildly non-committal in terms of pattern, color, or design.

Said teacher was helping a student with their project, so Hope just picked an easel and set herself up. Earphones on, sketching, it felt pretty nice. It was until I took a break, turned, and found a girl staring at me. I couldn’t tell what race she was, only her skin was darker than what a tan gets you. She was tall, maybe six feet. “You’re in my spot.”

“I didn’t know there was assigned seating in art club.”

“There isn’t!” called Ms Moreno, “Wyn leave the Hope alone, this is her first day joining the club.”

“Wyn?” Hope asked, looking at the other girl.

“It’s a nickname.” Wyn’s defensiveness didn’t make any sense to Hope, “Anyway I just like working here, next time pick somewhere else.”

“Okay,” Hope started packing up to move, just to get out of this girl’s way.

“You do any actual lessons?”

“No… just, lots of boredom in Perino’s class. Why?”

“You’re good. The shading anyway, delicate. Your perspectives get a little warped, like you’re trying to fit all sides of whatever it is on the page at once.”

Hope had been sketching a building in her mind, she had ideas for features on all four sides. So she drew all four sides. Trying to think of how they’d fit together. “The sketch is for figuring out how to build it. I don’t think I’d be good at just drawing a building.”

“I could help?” Wyn offered, “Mom’s always made sure I had lots of art classes. I didn’t mean to snap at you when I got here, I just- art’s pretty much the part of the day that’s just mine now.”

“Um, sounds fun, maybe tomorrow?” Hope did wonder what having actual lessons in art would be like, if there were some super secret techniques to learn. “I’m Hope. Hope Hollingsworth-Pacini.”

The taller girl faltered, “Eowyn MacPherson. Everyone calls me Wyn.”

“There a story behind your name?” Hope didn’t really care about the name, but the way the other girl seemed bothered saying it meant it probably meant something.

“Mom thought it’d be a good idea.” Wyn seemed to relax that Hope’s question wasn’t someway derisive, “It wasn’t.”

“If it makes you feel better, the story behind my name is dumb too.” Yelling at her over an easel, that’s gotta be the right start for a friendship at this school.

**Author's Note:**

> This is a very rough first go at writing Hope.
> 
> So... I don't terribly enjoy writing kids, so I moved up to Hope in high school as dumb high schoolers are my jam. I also decided to look further than just Hope's parents for things she might pick up. Part of why I added Sophie (Jake & Katie's daughter) is to give more people to compare Hope against if I did more. Hope is fashionable but not 'girly' in the way Sophie is. I also wanted this to be a Hope that's grown away from her parents a bit, not out of dysfunction but just teenager nature. So she's a little closer to her aunt-in-law (Maya), and her uncle (Hunter), although the Hunter stuff was clunky and got deleted. Hope still has her father's sense of sarcasm, her mother's eye for make-up... but she's her own person a bit separate from them too.
> 
> She learned to appreciate music from Maya, which bothers Lola to NO end.
> 
> The lack of Miles and Lola in this chapter was mostly a matter of not being sure what to do, parent-child is usually a bit more adversarial than niece-aunt. Hope would be more text and less subtext with Maya than Lola. I might do another run through of a day to include her parents just to see what happens. Also to write dad-Miles again.
> 
> Wyn is there to be her best friend, I made her Sav & Anya's kid out of nobody from NC would have kids Hope's age. She has Anya's last name because, as a way to give Hope and Wyn more common ground, they were both born out of wedlock. Wyn has some of the high-strung that is Sav, but with an artistic side cultivated from birth by her mother.
> 
> Any other characters I add will probably be just full OCs? As my only other idea is Spin & Emma have a kid to make everyone mad at me.


End file.
